KIRKUK, Iraq
At least 150 Daesh troops were killed after Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga troops launched a wide-scale offensive against Daesh, in the northern city of Kirkuk's south, an Iraqi parliament Kurdish MP said.
Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which is also known as ISIL.
According to Mahmoud Osman, a Kurdish MP of the regional Iraqi parliament, the operation which began Monday morning continued and has been a "success" so far.
"According to information we last received, at least 150 Daesh troops were killed in the land operation carried out by peshmerga forces and coalition airstrikes," MP Osman told The Anadolu Agency.
He also stated that four peshmerga forces were killed when a roadside mine went off.
Peshmerga forces were only 20 kilometers away from the Daesh-controlled Al-Hawija district located about 50 km from Kirkuk, the MP said.
On Monday morning, Wasta Rasul, a peshmerga commander, said Iraqi Kurdish troops, backed by the U.S.-led international coalition, began a wide-scale offensive against Daesh at 04 a.m. local time (0700GMT).
Rasul said the peshmerga, the armed wing of Iraq’s Kurdish regional government, attacked Daesh's positions in Maktab Khaled, Dakuk and Harabarut.
Serhat Qadir, local police chief in Kirkuk, said that coalition warplanes hit the militant group's positions in southern Kirkuk at least 40 times.
"Peshmerga troops regained Sultan Mari, al-Sahra, Ismail Awa and Molla Abdollah villages in southern Kirkuk," Qadir told The Anadolu Agency.
